Water levels – bite? - Mississippi River – Walleye - Mississippi River – Walleye

Probably one of the hardest sought after skills in fishing is understanding how to react to changing levels/clarity/flow. After 51 years of it, to answer your question completely would take me hours and probably more than 20 pages…so here”s links to past Ido threads

Much of walleye fishing is about flow/level/clarity of water… and eating and breeding… yeah fronts and barometer and others are factors… but to answer your question I will have to assume at least some parts of the puzzle so I will assume the weather conditions are relatively stable…on this upcoming weekend it appears that we will fall back into the winter, but in past years this close to the spawn that usually is more a matter of human comfort than walleye comfort.

http://www.idofishing.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=eye&Number=639981&Forum

FISHING IT HIGH AND MUDDY

Over the last six monthes guiding on both the Mississippi, and the Wisconsin river we have had more than our share of high and muddy water. The same techniques have yeilded fish again and again. There are some subtle differences between the Miss and WI. rivers, but I will cover first the similarities. With out exception the keys have been , get out of the main current, and slow down(using rigging /Jigging technique mentioned above), and go to live bait. I am talking about walleye here, it seems like the bass locations don’t change as much, they are just harder to fish. In the spring it was minnows on both the bottom jig and the bare hook, and now it seems crawlers on the bare hook and nothing on the jig(Taylor Tackle Walleye Killer), or crawler on both. You will see me use crawlers instead of leechs,or willow cats, for two simple reasons . The crawlers are picked in my back yard, and I rarely notice a difference,or preference for one of the other two. Trust me I double check that theory often and prefishing every tourney. I pretty much have covered the presentation in the techniques above, but what do I mean by out of the current. Most people would generalize this by saying any area adjacent to the current that either has a decreased flow or actually current running the opposite direction(back eddy). I would have to agree with the above, but let me be a little more specific. I have found that it must be very near the main current though. The four best locations I have found are, in my order of preference….. #1-Cuts or ditches… small to medium dents(the face or opening) in the shoreline that are partially protected from the main current,examples would include the thirty or so small little side inlets and tiny bays that you find in Minnesota slough(pool nine) or as far as that goes anywhere on the Mississippi. On the Wisconsin river these little pockets sometimes are only fishible when the water is high, since many of them are normally bone dry. I’m not talking about sloughs and running sloughes themselves here(just the cuts and ditches along them) , I will get to them in a minute. #2-On any river you will see areas where a point, island, or man made structure leaves an area behind it that is slower current and often a back eddy. In spring it is often the spawning flats ,and the rest of the year it is more productive when it is associated with riprap or rocky/shelly bottom. In all these cases a casual trip or two up through these areas will tell you whether there are fish biting there or not. Flooded timber with an opening downriver gives you almost the same effect.(both of these locations will sound very familiar to my guide customers). The best example I can think of as to how important fishing this location( AREA PROTECTED BY A POINT) , would be the USFA Division Championship in Rock Island(Davenport). Steve and Tom brought in 27 lbs for six fish from exactly this type of location, with huge flood conditions and water you couldn’t see your finger in. The next two locations are primarily Mississipi river locations. #3- The mouthes of running sloughes in general will hold walleye in high and muddy water. Your looking for the upriver corner first , because it is blocked from heavy current ,by a closing dam plus the upriver point at the opening. There are many places up and down the Mississippi that seem to only hold good numbers of fish that meet this discription, when the water is high and muddy, and many of you know some of them hold fish all year round. On the Wisconsin these areas are more commonly creek inlets,where the runoff has already worked through, but the main channel is still high and muddy. An example would be just north of Sandy Banks on Petenwell flowage. #4- As Steve Richards and I saw yesterday the main current of running sloughes are often just as hard to fish as the main channel,(mostly floating weeds), but in general the current is often enough slower than the main channel to hold a lot more catchable fish than the main channel. Also the back water inlets and running sloughes are usually filled with turns and bends that all leave slower fishable water behind them. Hope this narrows down your hunting in High and Muddy water.

Sorry I had to copy and paste just parts of the second link… it included references to our guide pages and guide website which is not allowed here when yu are not on staff.